News

TRW Automotive Holdings has developed a range of curtain airbag technologies that the company claims help mitigate the risk of occupant ejection. According to Norbert Kagerer, vice president of TRW's Occupant Safety Systems business, the recent US legislation regarding occupant ejection mitigation underscores the importance of a number of airbag technologies designed to help keep occupants inside the vehicle. For example, TRW has developed one piece woven (OPW) curtain designs that include the unique X-T

SmartDrive has won the prestigious Fleet Safety Product of the Year award at the 2011 Brake Fleet Safety Forum Awards for Excellence for its advanced in-vehicle video safety programme that improves driver behaviour and reduces collisions. Another honour at this Brake event, the ‘Safe Vehicles’ award went to online grocery retailer Ocado, a SmartDrive customer.

Kapsch, ITRI International, Cohda Wireless and Cisco Systems, and Savari Networks have been selected by the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Programme Office (ITS JPO) to provide roadside equipment as part of the Connected Vehicle Safety Pilot Programme. The contracts were awarded by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) which solicited quotations from suppliers to provide all the necessary equipment, materials, and services for the development and production of the devices. Each of the device

ZoomSafer, a provider of risk management software to prevent distracted driving, and Ovation Wireless Management, provider of enterprise mobile device management solutions, have announced a new partnership that integrates ZoomSafer’s FleetSafer policy management solutions with Ovation's mobile device management software to enable companies to monitor employee compliance with mobile phone use policies. ZoomSafer offers two enterprise software services for enforcing cell phone use policies. FleetSafer Vision,

The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (LACMTA) has selected a joint venture of AECOM and Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) to provide conceptual planning and preliminary design for the US$1.4 billion Metro Regional Connector Transit corridor project, also known as the Downtown Connector or Downtown Light-Rail Connector.

Infinova has announced that 2,870 of its cameras of varying types are covering 830 km of expressways throughout the northern province of Shanxi in China. Expressways include Shangman, Xihan, Baoniu, Weipu, Shangjie, Baomao, Tongxi and Zhong’nan Mountain Tunnel. Besides the cameras, the deployments also include the company’s matrix switchers, DVRs, fibre optic transceivers and modems, housings, Ethernet modems and other Infinova equipment.

US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has announced that the US DOT and Better Business Bureau will collaborate to educate consumers and businesses about the dangers of distracted driving. “Distracted driving has become a deadly epidemic on America’s roads,” Secretary LaHood said. “We know that educating people about the risk of distracted driving works, and we are pleased to be working with BBB to raise awareness and help businesses and consumers fight this problem.”

Ford, together with its partners in China, is building its first transmission plant there to support its aggressive growth plan in the world's largest auto market. Ford's passenger vehicle joint venture in China, Changan Ford Mazda Automobile (CFMA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the transmission plant project with the Chongqing Municipal Government. The plant, with an initial investment of US$350 million to be entirely funded by CFMA, will produce advanced fuel-efficient six-speed automati

GreenRoad, a specialist in driver performance and fuel efficiency, has announced that City Link, the UK's leading premium express delivery company, has gone live with GreenRoad 360 in 280 vans at 14 depots throughout the country.

According to new research from TomTom, men's stress levels soar a staggering seven times higher than a woman's when stuck in heavy traffic. Psychologists tested volunteers for the rise in stress chemicals - Immunoglobulin A (IgA - an immune system marker) and alpha-amylase (a stress marker) - in their saliva when caught up in a traffic jam. The levels for women in the study increased by 8.7 per cent while stuck behind the wheel - but for men it shot up by a worrying 60 per cent in the same gridlock scenario

Volkswagen, in cooperation with six project partners and the German Ministry of the Environment, is presenting the current status of the ‘Fleet study in electric mobility’ that was initiated in July 2008. The primary goal of the project, which runs until June 2012, is to consistently utilise renewable energy sources for electrically powered vehicles. Within the framework of the fleet study, Volkswagen is using a total of 20 of the latest generation Golf Variant TwinDrive cars as research vehicles.

Image Sensing Systems has announced that its subsidiary Image Sensing Systems – Europe (ISS – Europe) has provided Nottingham City Council with a CitySync ANPR access control system at the Broadmarsh Multi-Story car park (MSCP). Located in the city centre opposite Nottingham Crown Court, the council wished to introduce a designated contract parking area within the car park to provide local workers a permanent allocated parking space.

Sweden-headquartered RFID specialist TagMaster has received an order from Richor, the company’s premium Chinese distributor, to supply 10,000 Heavy-duty ID-tags. These customised 2.45 GHz ID-tags form part of several equipment orders relating to the Letter of Intent announced in May 2011, which covers the joint development of an RFID system for use on mainline railways in China.

ST Electronics of Singapore has been awarded contracts valued at a total of SGD 58 million (US$46.84 million) to carry out infomation-security and ITS projects. Under the info-security projects, which are worth SGD 28mn, ST Electronics will implement solutions and devices for a national infrastructure project, as well as event management and security incident systems.

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has developed an onboard navigation system compatible with the vehicle-infrastructure cooperative Driving Safety Support System (DSSS) scheduled for launch by the Japanese National Police Agency in Japan next month. The five main features of the new system, which provides timely audio and visual warnings and notifications to drivers, are red light warning, stop sign warning, stationary vehicle ahead warning, blind corner vehicle presence notification, and green light advance n